Good reading: The
Hunger Games Trilogy, young adult novels roughly in the
category of Harry Potter but way more interesting. There’s a movie coming March
23 but I worry that it won’t capture the emotional complexity
that makes the books so good. So read them! It’s even free on Amazon if you own Kindle hardware
and are a Prime subscriber.

The setup for the books is not very promising. Future
dystopia, subjects are forced to send children every year
to a fight to the death for the amusement of the ruling
class. It seems like Most Dangerous Game / Running Man / Arena,
a cliché action story. And there’s a risk that’s what the
movie will be.

But the books are so much more. There’s an enormous emotional
complexity in the main character, Katniss. She’s a badass hunter
and is completely capable of killing her competitors to survive. But
she’s also horribly conflicted about it and has a really subtle
relationship with her situation in the world. And boyfriends, some
good writing there, way beyond the pathetic girly stuff in a novel like
Twilight. It’s rare to read something so complex and alienating
in books for teenagers. Really well done.

The first book is the best but the story payoff in the third book is
worth the time.